Co-op Academy Stoke-on-Trent

EQUALITY STATEMENT

To develop and maintain a more diverse and inclusive community, Co-op Academy Stoke-on-Trent recognises that our success as an Academy is embedded in a genuine understanding of how the components of diversity reflect our values of; equality, responsibility and respect.

Diversity at Co-op Academy Stoke-on-Trent encompasses race, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status, religion, intellectual and physical ability, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, family structure, language and geographic place of origin. We are a diverse and varied community and we celebrate this.

● Co-op Academy Stoke-on-Trent demonstrates a clear commitment to the promotion of diversity and equality as highlighted in its Academy Improvement Plan and other policies and related documents.

● The Academy aims to create a fair and just Academy community that promotes social inclusion, community cohesion and equality that respects diversity and which challenges and acts upon all forms of discrimination and inequality, including bullying and transphobia.

● The Academy works actively to celebrate difference and challenge racism, sexism, homophobia and all other forms of prejudice.

● The Academy takes positive action to promote racial harmony and to promote positive attitudes towards life in a multicultural and multi-ethnic and multi-faith school, through goal time, the curriculum and special projects throughout the year.

● There is a continuous focus to ensure that all students have equal opportunities to achieve to the best of their ability regardless of their gender, ethnic or racial background, religion, ability or sexuality.

● We actively promote the British Values of tolerance, fairness, respect for other faiths, and the rule of law and democracy. Our Academy ‘Shared Values and Learning Ethos’ underpin our whole school behaviour and rewards system.

In 2022/23, we celebrated “Diversity Day”, planned by our students, to ensure we were fully celebrating the many cultural backgrounds which make up our academy community.

Further to this, we have appointed and trained a group of student "Diversity Ambassadors" in addition to our existing student leadership roles. They have begun to inform our actions as an academy to ensure that EDI is threaded through every aspect of student life.